We’ve focused a lot in recent months on the worrisome trend of retail bankruptcies and all the stores and malls being left vacant in their wake. But a new federal jobs report gives an idea of the impact these tough times have had on workers, with nearly 30,000 retail jobs vanishing in March. [More]
malls
Investors Betting That Mall Owners Will Default On Mortgages
By 3.14.17
Nearly a decade ago, some investors scored big payouts by predicting that the housing boom’s glut of mortgage-backed securities would turn out to be toxic. Now there are investors betting on the hope that more mall owners will soon be letting their properties go into foreclosure. [More]
As Sales Sink, Urban Outfitters CEO Declares Retail “Bubble Has Burst”
By 3.8.17
The last few years haven’t exactly been great for long-time mall retailers, with chains like Wet Seal, BCBG, Aeropostale, and The Limited filing for bankruptcy, while Abercrombie & Fitch and Barnes & Noble struggle to remain relevant. Now that two additional mall mainstays — Express and Urban Outfitters — one CEO is saying that retailers have no one to blame but themselves. [More]
Buying Up Dying Malls Can Be A Viable Business
By 2.22.17 — Updated: 2.27.17
We hear so often about the fading of brick-and-mortar retail that it might seem hard to believe that there are companies out there in the market to buy more malls. Yet there are buyers for distressed malls, even when the owners are about to walk away. There are companies that specialize in this kind of thing, and they aren’t tearing them all down or turning them into apartments. [More]
Wet Seal Files For Second Bankruptcy Since 2015
By 2.2.17
In a move that will surprise no one, young women’s clothing retailer Wet Seal has filed for bankruptcy for the second time in just over two years. This time, the chain will not be re-organizing, and it’s unlikely that a new owner will come along and rescue the business out of bankruptcy. [More]
Mall Owners Let Properties Go Into Foreclosure, Walk Away
By 1.24.17
It’s not hard to believe that the owners of malls might be looking to get out of the mall business. Developing shopping centers may have looked like a solid investment for most of the last 60 years or so, but now owners are calculating that it’s better to let them go into foreclosure than to try keeping them open. [More]
Macy’s Announces 68 Store Closings Across The Country; Here’s The List
By 1.4.17
The holiday season is over, and it’s time for retailers to figure out exactly how terrible the holiday season was. Macy’s, which is still trying to figure out a business model for department stores in general, announced its quarterly results along with a long list of stores across the country that are closing. [More]
Malls Try To Impose Order, Prevent More Christmas Break Brawls
By 12.28.16
On Dec. 26 at malls across the country, what appears to be a very loosely coordinated series of brawls and mass hysteria broke out in malls, mostly beginning in the food courts and spiraling outward. Mall operators would really prefer if this didn’t happen again for the rest of the holiday season. Or ever. [More]
A Handy Guide To This Year’s Biggest Post-Christmas Mall Brawls
By 12.27.16
All across the country, mall shoppers took Boxing Day way too literally this year, with high-profile skirmishes, arrests, and evacuations occurring at shopping centers in nearly a dozen states. [More]
Racist Tirade Proves To Be One Way To Get Banned From A Mall
By 12.21.16
What kind of behavior can get you banned from a public place like a mall? Being caught on camera verbally abusing other customers is one way, as a woman in Kentucky recently found out. [More]
7 Injured After NYC Mall Escalator Malfunctions, Causing Chain Reaction
By 12.21.16
Several shoppers in New York City had an unpleasant surprise yesterday when an escalator malfunctioned, tripping up at least one person who fell and caused a chain reaction. Seven people were injured in the accident, officials say. [More]
From Cash Registers To Escalators To Shopping Carts: 11 Important Firsts In Bricks-And-Mortar Retail History
By 12.13.16
These days you can shop from the comfort your couch in your soft pants, ordering up a flat of cat food, paper towels, and a smartphone with one click. So it’s easy to forget that once upon a time shopping at retail stores wasn’t a necessary evil, but an “experience” that many of us actually enjoyed. [More]
NC Mall Wants To Evict Sears For Low Sales, Lack Of Effort
By 9.30.16 — Updated: 10.3.16
Sears had a deal with the Holly Hill Mall in Burlington, NC that isn’t unusual: the retailer gave the mall a small percentage of its sales instead of paying a fixed rent. That amount has evidently fallen over the years as the popularity and business prospects of Sears fell, and now the mall has sued Sears for failing to keep up its end of the lease. [More]
Aeropostale Increases Number Of Stores That Will Stay Open To 400
By 9.16.16
Earlier this week, a bankruptcy judge approved a $243 million bid from a group of mall landlords, liquidators, and a licensing company that would save 229 of Aeropostale’s 720 stores from closing their doors forever. Things are looking even better than expected now for the teen retailer, as its new owners say they’ll be able to keep open 171 more stores than originally planned. [More]
Foot Locker CEO Claims Malls Are “Far From Dead”
By 8.19.16
Maybe it’s just because Foot Locker had sales growth to report because people are snapping up higher priced- basketball and running shoes, but the company’s CEO seems to be in a very positive mood about the state of malls in the U.S., which is surprising at a time when other mall-based retailers are struggling. [More]
Michael Kors Pulling Back On Department Store Presence In Effort To Polish Brand’s Image
By 8.10.16
Yet another designer brand has decided to pull back on its department store presence in an attempt to polish up its image in the eyes of consumers and boost flagging sales. Michael Kors announced it will no longer accept coupons for its merchandise sold in department stores, and will be pulling back from that category in general come next year. [More]
More Medical Facilities Moving Into Malls Thanks To Cheap Rent, Demographic Changes
By 7.25.16
Baby boomers are getting older and need more medical care, millennials’ kids need vaccinations and checkups, and malls have relatively cheap rent and plentiful parking, and need more steady tenants. What does all of this add up to? An expansion of health care facilities in malls to more than the urgent care facilities that we might be used to. [More]
